A Time for Tea [Paperback]

Jason Goodwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 2009

Jason Goodwin takes the reader on an adventurous journey through the serpentine paths of the tea trade-from China to India to London. Evoking both past and present in this lively and intriguing traveler's journal, he traces the development of the tea trade from its origins in Canton factories through the Opium Wars and the settlement of British India. His travels take him from the lost European cities of the China coast to inland China, to Calcutta, to India's high tea gardens in Bohea and Darjeeling. Full of historical and personal detail, A Time for Tea is highly informative, funny, and original. This is more than a travelogue, it is the soul of economic development.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Armchair travelers and tea connoisseurs will welcome English writer Goodwin's lively treatise cum travel book on the cultivation and trade of tea. Starting in southern China, where cha originated as the drink of emperors, he follows the trail to today's English cottages and London drawing rooms. Each distinctive blend of tea is credited with unique medical and other properties, from rare lc per web oolong picked from 1000-year-old bushes to Darjeeling, grown in the gardens of Assam and traded at the world's largest tea auctions in monsoon-drenched cosmopolitan Calcutta. In each region Goodwin also observed the special rituals and appurtenances used to serve tea. The author interweaves wonderfully sensual evocations of place and offbeat encounters with the historical and economic roles of tea in lands that produce it, while also surveying the influence of tea trade on international relations.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

London-based writer Goodwin gives an eccentric and personal account of the tea trade as he travels to China, India, and back to his homeland. He recounts the origins of cha (tea) in the Canton factories and retraces the steps of past tea chroniclers. He cons his way past bureaucratic gatekeepers and journeys into the tea mountains of Wuyi and the furthest reaches of Darjeeling. What John McPhee did for oranges ( Oranges , LJ 2/1/67) and more recently John Feltwell did for silk ( Story of Silk , LJ 5/1/91), Goodwin has done for tea in a book that is at once history, curious lore, and brilliant travel writing. Highly recommended.
- Douglas W. Coo per, Randolph-Macon Coll., Ashland, Va.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 410 pages
• Publisher: Transaction Large Print (December 31, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1412813077
• ISBN-13: 978-1412813075
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,705,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm surprised that this is out of print, November 29, 1999

By 

Pirate Jenny (Brookline, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea (Hardcover)

I read this book when it first came out, and I really loved it. I still refer to the facts I learned within; just last week I was explaining Lapsang Souchong to an Irishman. I was left feeling that I knew Mr. Goodwin, and contemplated finding him and making him my husband, primarily so we could travel together.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING! Grab a teapot & BUY THIS BOOK!, January 28, 1999

By 

Chajm-Gideon (Cleveland, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea (Hardcover)

This book is WONDERFUL! Be forewarned, however: you WILL begin to guzzle litre after litre of tea during the reading of this book. Mr. Goodwin gives an absolutely wonderful first-person account of his often hilarious travels investigating the tea trade, from its' beginnings in Canton to the present day. A MUST for anyone who loves tea - and I'd rate Mr. Goodwin's writing style on a par with Pico Iyer's. A good read, full of humour and information...

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible tea journey, August 11, 2011

By 

Christopher Armstrong-Stevenson (St. Helens, Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: A Time for Tea: Travels Through China and India in Search of Tea (Hardcover)

Goodwin takes us on a journey of exploration, history, geography, social life and tea-drinking in all the right places. I've been a full-time tea-drinker since I was weaned as a baby in the UK and have learned more about tea from this book than I ever thought I wanted or needed to know. The author writes in such a way that the whole book and his journey, become a live instruction in the countries, lives and producers of tea, while making it all so pleasurable that one hardly thinks of the lessons being imparted at the same time as participating in his adventures.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in tea, whether as a beverage of choice, a lesson in the economics or social and cultural studies of the indigenous populations of the tea-producing countries...or just for the fun of it all.